The Role of Trade and Investment Policies in Boosting NDCs Implementation

Date
-
Event
Session Type
Conference
Session Themes
Climate Finance and Investment
Energy Transition
Room number
Hall 2 Room 6
Contact Email
Amelia.Santos-Paulino@un.org
Claudia.Contreras@unctad.org
19 October 2023
10:30 - 12:00 Abu Dhabi
Asia/Dubai

Trade, investment, and green industrial policies can help countries achieve carbon emission reductions set forth in their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and energy transition plans (ETPs). Tariffs, market-based mechanisms, subsidies, and technical regulations can facilitate energy transition, enhance the market for carbon efficient products, and facilitate the phasing out of unsustainable economic activities. Trade response measures can also lead to negative outcomes such as reducing countries’ competitiveness in affected sectors. International cooperation can support developing countries’ access to green technologies.  

UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2023: Investment in Sustainable Energy for All calls for urgent support to developing countries to enable them to attract significantly more investment for their transition to clean energy. A concerted effort is essential to ensure successful implementation paths for NDCs while minimizing the potential negative impact of policy measures in developing countries. 

Based on the findings from the UNCTAD WIR 2023 and recent research on the contribution of trade, investment, and industrial policy to the implementation of NDCs, the session will identify opportunities, challenges and policy priorities to help advance climate change goals. The session’s outputs will contribute to the WIF 2023 High-level event on The Investment, Trade and Development Nexus, which will address the evolving relationship between trade, investment, and development in the context of today’s multiple global crises and increasingly difficult policy environment for international trade and investment. 

Speakers will include high-level policymakers and experts on trade, investment, and climate change policy, and other relevant stakeholders. 

Session themes:

  • How can the inclusion of trade, investment, and green industrial policy related provisions in NDCs contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, by incentivizing investment into the development of green or blue production and export?  
  • How can trade and investment policy help countries minimize the potential social and economic impact of mitigation efforts? 
  • How international collaboration (e.g. green technology transfer) help enhance developing countries’ carbon competitiveness and improve their access to global markets? 

Speaker(s)

Vice Minister of Industrial Development at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and MSMEs, Dominican Republic
Professor of Technology and International Development, Oxford University
Programme Officer, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
Director of Regional Integration and Trade, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
Lead Economist, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
Climate Change Advisor, Ministry of Environment, Colombia
Senior Advisor, Global Advantage and Public Sector Boston Consulting Group and Luksic Fellow and Visiting Scholar, Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies

Moderator(s)

Acting Director, Division on International Trade and Commodities, UNCTAD